UofT's Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology

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Your training takes place in clinical and/or research environments within teaching hospital settings.

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Earlier this month, the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto celebrated the end of the 2025-2026 academic year with an awards ceremony and celebration.

We celebrated our graduates and award winners, as well as those who have retired, provided long service, or have been promoted this year.

Our faculty members earned awards for their achievements and contributions to teaching and mentorship. Congratulations to the following faculty for receiving awards!

Award for Undergraduate Teaching:
▪️Rajeevan Selvaratnam

Teaching Excellence in Graduate Education
▪️Phedias Diamandis

Early Career Teaching Award
▪️Ashley Di Meo

Clinical Teaching Excellence Award in Residency Training
▪️Christine Cserti-Gazdewich

Teaching Excellence Award in Fellowship Education
▪️Daniel Xia

Clinical Teaching Excellence Award in Hematological Pathology
▪️Ali Sakhdari

Sustained Excellence Education Award
▪️Anna Plotkin

The John B. Walter Prize for Course & Curriculum Design & Development
▪️Davor Brinc

Danny Ghazarian Award
▪️Niloofar Sina

Richard G. Hegele Award for Excellence in Research and Innovation
▪️Dan Winer

Leadership Award
▪️Michael Ohh

Distinguished Service Award
▪️Susan Done
▪️Jeff Lee

Outstanding Alumni Mentor:
▪️Ioannis Prassas

Congratulations to our award recipients!

Our Annual Celebration of Excellence is an opportunity for us to celebrate our achievements over the past year.

We celebrated our graduates and award winners, as well as those who have retired, provided long service, or have been promoted this year.

Nine of our faculty members were promoted this year, effective July 1, 2026.

We also celebrated the careers of our retiring professors and gave thanks to those who have reached service milestones.

Retirements:
▪️Nades Palaniyar
▪️Li Zhang

Promotions to Professor:
▪️Dr. Michelle Downes
▪️Dr. Katerina Pavenski
▪️Dr. Clinton Robbins

Promotions to Associate Professor:
▪️Dr. Ramzi Fattouh
▪️Dr. Anjelica Hodgson
▪️Dr. Carlo Hojilla
▪️Dr. Golnaz Karoubi
▪️Dr. Rob Kozak
▪️Dr. Amy Wong

Long-term service:

20 years of service:
▪️Hal Berman
▪️Stephen Girardin
▪️Paul Yip
▪️Zeina Ghorab

25 years of service:
▪️Maja Barnard
▪️Susan Done
▪️Aaron Pollett

30 years of service:
▪️Ming-Sound Tsao

35 years of service:
▪️Linda Kapusta

45 years of service:
▪️Barry Hoffman

Congratulations to all!

Earlier this month, the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto celebrated the end of the 2025-2026 academic year with an awards ceremony and celebration.

We celebrated our graduates and award winners, as well as those who have retired, provided long service, or have been promoted this year.

Our learners earned awards for academic achievement and mentorship. Congratulations to the following learners for receiving awards!

Allan Gornall Pathobiology Awards:
▪️Elizabeth Dieroff (2nd year award)
▪️Maya Honda-Granirer (3rd year award)
▪️Charlotte Selda (3rd year award)
▪️Logan MacDonald (4th year award)

The Avrum Gottlieb Award for Curriculum Development and Teaching Excellence in Training:
▪️Maryam Khalil

Stuart Alan Hoffman Memorial Prize:
▪️Cassandra Taber

Dr. Rajalakshmi S. Dittakavi and Dr. Prema M. Rao Graduate Awards in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology:
▪️Ryunosuke Hoshi

The Norman Bethune Award:
▪️Aisha Adil (graduate recipient)
▪️Dr. Kumudhavalli Kavanoor Sridhar (postgraduate recipient)

Stanley Raphael Award for Professionalism:
▪️Dr. Cathy R. Cao

Alan Pollard Post-Doctoral Clinical Chemistry Travel Award:
▪️Dr. Chien-Yi Lu

Outstanding Student Mentor:
▪️Susanna Fang

Congratulations to our award recipients!

This Stroke Awareness Month, we're highlighting PhD candidate Mary-Jo Hatem in the lab of Dr. Michelle Bendeck within the Translation Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Mary-Jo is investigating how vascular smooth muscle cells contribute to atherosclerosis—the buildup of plaque in arteries responsible for many heart attacks and strokes.

Mary-Jo is a recipient of an OGS Heart and Stroke Foundation Scholarship. Her research aims to uncover new ways to prevent plaque instability and arterial blockages, helping reduce the risk of life-altering cardiovascular events before they happen.

"I am so grateful to have been awarded the OGS Heart and Stroke Foundation Scholarship as it opens more doors in our research by giving us the funding to move forward and explore this topic in greater depth and complexity. By understanding early and late stages of disease, we can develop potential therapeutics and treatments that can prevent atherosclerotic plaques from becoming catastrophic," says Mary-Jo.

This Stroke Awareness Month, we're recognizing MSc candidate Kamalben Prajapati, in the lab of Dr. Kathryn Howe at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network. Kamalben's research focuses on identifying blood-based biomarkers that could help predict stroke risk in patients with carotid artery disease.

Kamalben is a CGS-M award recipient. By advancing precision-medicine approaches to stroke prevention, Kamalben's work has the potential to support earlier intervention and better patient outcomes.

"I am honoured to have received this award, for it will enable a multiomics approach to select a biomarker panel that can distinguish between high and low stroke risk patient phenotypes, providing additional insight into the disease etiology," says Kamalben.

Happy convocation to all of our graduates! 🎓

Wishing you the best of luck with whatever comes next. Stay in touch and tag us in your convocation photos! 📸

🔗 Learn more about how you can continue to be involved with LMP at lmp.utoronto.ca/alumni

🎓 Convocation Spotlight: Parth Shah

What started as attending the LMPSU Annual Conference for the free food turned into a defining moment for Parth Shah’s undergraduate journey.

After seeing the way professors and students engaged with one another, Parth realized the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP) Specialist program was the kind of academic community where he could truly thrive.

Over the past three years, Parth found not only a passion for scientific discovery, but also a strong network of peers, mentors and friends who supported each other through every challenge.

A defining experience for Parth was conducting research in Dr. Dana Philpott’s lab, where he studied NOD2 and metabolic function. Through the realities of troubleshooting experiments and problem-solving in the lab, he gained a deeper understanding of what research truly looks like and developed the critical thinking skills that now shape how he approaches science.

“LMP taught me to think critically, ask ‘why,’ analyze experimental design, and interpret data beyond surface-level conclusions.”

After graduation, Parth hopes to attend medical school while continuing to stay involved in research.

Congratulations, Parth! 🎉